Agenda

Please join the Atlantic Council for an on-the-record discussion with H.E. Khaled Alyemany, Yemen's permanent representative to the United Nations, to discuss challenges and opportunities in the Yemeni peace process.

In March 2015, an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen at the request of Yemeni President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi to reverse an offensive by Houthi rebels allied with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh who was ousted following mass protests in 2011. Almost two years into the conflict, we will assess the main challenges and opportunities in the peace process and the prospects of a sustained political settlement to end the war as well as the role the United States could play in bringing that to fruition.

Bios

Khaled Alyemany is the permanent representative of Yemen to the United Nations. Prior to his appointment, he was deputy permanent representative from July 2013 to December 2014. Alyemany began his diplomatic career in Yemen’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in 1991, and through 2013, he held several positions, including overseas. He served as director at the Foreign Minister’s Office from January to June 2013, and deputy director from 2011 to 2012 and earlier in 2009. As chief negotiator at the Permanent Mission in New York from October 2009 to December 2010 during Yemen’s chairmanship of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, Alyemany negotiated the Outcome Document of the Millennium Development Goals Review Conference in 2010. Alyemany was deputy chief of mission at Yemen’s embassy in London from 2005 to 2009, and an expert, assistant and private Secretary at the Foreign Minister’s Office from 2003 to 2005. Prior to that, he was a political and press officer at Yemen’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 2000 to 2003. Alyemany holds a master’s degree from the University of Havana, Cuba. He is also the author of a number of publications, including Diaries of a Diplomat in New York, published in Yemen in 2012.

Nadwa Al-Dawsari is a conflict specialist and civil society leader with over 15 years of experience working in the field of conflict and change management, civil society development, women and youth empowerment, and elections monitoring. She is a leading Yemeni specialist on tribes, tribal conflict resolution systems, and a pioneer in designing and implementing innovative, cultural specific conflict-sensitive programs. Since 2005 she has led the implementation of programs in remote tribal areas while working directly with tribal leaders, religious leaders, civil society organizations, women, youth groups, and local authorities to help promote the culture of conflict management and conflict-sensitive development in Yemen. Al-Dawsari is the founding member and former executive director of Partners Yemen, the local affiliate center of Partners for Democratic Change International. She is a member of the Institute of Inclusive Security’s Women Waging Peace Network. She holds a master’s degree in development studies from the University of Leeds.

Mohammed Khalid Alyahya is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. He is also a research fellow at the Gulf Research Center and serves on the advisory board for the Future Trends in the GCC Program at Chatham House. He was an associate fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies from 2014 to 2015. Alyahya is a Saudi Arabian political analyst and commentator. His writing has been published in the Financial Times, the Guardian, Al-Monitor, the Royal United Services Institute, the Telegraph, Al Arabiya, and the Huffington Post. His comments have been featured on BBC, the Financial Times, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, the Telegraph, Gulf News, and other outlets. He has a BA in political science from the University of Pennsylvania.

​Mirette F. Mabrouk is deputy director and director of research & programs at the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. Her area of research focus is Egypt, particularly economic reform, civil society, media, and international relations. She was formerly director of communications for the Economic Research Forum, the foremost economic think tank for the Arab Countries, Turkey, and Iran. Mabrouk capped almost 20 years in journalism by becoming the founding Publisher of The Daily Star Egypt, (later renamed The Daily News Egypt) the country’s only independent English-language daily newspaper. Mabrouk graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1989 with a BA in Mass Communication. A year later she obtained her MA in Broadcast Journalism from the same university.

Nabeel Khoury is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, where he writes on the Arab transition countries, the rise of Islamist forces in the Middle East and North Africa, and US foreign policy in the region. Dr. Khoury is currently a visiting associate professor at the Middle East and North African Studies program at Northwestern University. He is also a visiting scholar and a senior fellow for Middle East and national security at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Previously, he taught Middle East and US strategy courses at the National Defense University in Washington. Dr. Khoury served for twenty-five years in the Foreign Service in the US Department of State, retiring with the rank of minister counselor. In Washington, he was director of the Near East South Asia Office of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (2008-12). Overseas, he served as deputy chief of mission in Yemen (2004-7), deputy director of the Media Outreach Center in London (2002-4), and during the 2003 Iraq war as the State Department spokesperson for US Central Command in Doha and in Baghdad. He also served as consul general in Morocco (1998-2002).